Philly police: Bodies found in river in abduction tied to drugs

Philadelphia police load a body pulled from the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park into a vehicle in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. The bound bodies of two people were found in the river Wednesday, and a third man who said he managed to free himself is being treated at a hospital for stab wounds, police said. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia police say the killings of two men whose bodies were found bound and weighted down with a makeshift anchor in a city river were drug-related.

Homicide Capt. James Clark also said Wednesday that police are investigating a possible gang connection to the two killings and the critical wounding of a third man.

Clark says the dead men both had their throats slit and had been tortured.

The third man was found wandering in a street near where the bodies were found. The 23-year-old had also been stabbed and thrown in the river but told police he wasn’t weighted down and was able to swim ashore.

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Police say all three men had been abducted together, contradicting an early account of what happened. Police would only say some preliminary information proved inaccurate.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The bound bodies of two men were found in a Philadelphia river Wednesday, and a third man who said he managed to free himself is being treated at a hospital for stab wounds, police said.

The bodies were found in the Schuylkill River in Fairmount Park just before 4 a.m. Wednesday, Chief Inspector Scott Small said.

“Both of the dead bodies had duct tape wrapped around their face. They also both appeared to be bound, their wrists and ankles. They also appeared to be tied or tethered to some piece of debris, some sort of weight used as an anchor to take them under water,” he said.

Small said a 20-year-old man with stab wounds was taken to a hospital in stable condition.

The bodies were located early Wednesday after police came upon a third man walking along the road who told them he managed to get out of the Schuylkill River after also being bound and stabbed. The 20-year-old is reported in stable condition.

Police say they do not yet know the identities of the two dead men.

Investigators say at least one was weighed down with a makeshift anchor. A roofing cement bucket was seen pulled from the water during the recovery.

Police say the man walking along the road said he was alone when he was abducted, blindfolded, thrown in a van and robbed.

Small said the surviving victim reported that he was thrown into the back of a van in another part of Philadelphia, and the other two victims were already in the van. He said he was robbed and stabbed before all three were tossed into the river, but he was able to free himself and climb out of the river.

“At this point, the only motive we have for the abduction and stabbing of our 20-year-old victim who’s alive is robbery,” Small said. “He claims when he was thrown in the back of the van and tied up and stabbed he was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money. He further states that the two other victims were already in the back of the van — he was not with the two other victims — so we don’t know if the two other victims were related to the robbery.”

Small said the other two victims were pronounced dead at the scene, and both remained unidentified.

“We’re not even certain if they’re males,” he said.

Small said he would not disclose the place where the surviving victim was abducted, but police hoped to use surveillance video from that location to identify the van.